Nyx: Daughter of Death and Darkness
by Riri.Bitterstep
Summary: There had been an incident. Yeah, that was one way to put it. With her best friend dead, and with her all but being exiled to Maxville and forced to attend Sky High because of an agreement. All she wants to do is hurry up and graduate, but maybe it won't be as bad as she expects. Could be slower burn Warren/OC Rated M for reasons including detailed zombie descriptions
1. Chapter One

Sky High belongs to its legal owners

Chapter One:

There had been an incident.

That was one way to put it.

There had been an incident.

So now she was standing at the Maxville airport, bags in hand and no ride to take her to her new place. She wanted to be surprised that her brother had forgotten about her, but she wasn't. She couldn't have been. So she gathered her stuff and hoped that there would be a taxi waiting in the parking lot. She let out a sigh of relief when she spotted a yellow cab driver leaning on his car having a smoke.

She tried to stop her nose from wrinkling at the smell of tobacco, but it failed, instead, she backed off until he was done then approached him. "Excuse me." He looked over and grunted, "Are you still in service?"

"The light's on, ain't it? But I don't got room for a no-paying customer."

She let out a sigh and pulled out a gold credit card from her bag, "Will this do?"

"Get in." He circled the cab and opened the back door for her, then put her stuff in the trunk. She dug out the piece of paper with the address of her new home on it, ready to hand it over the moment the driver asked.

He got in and turned to look at her, "Where ya headed, kid?" She handed him the paper and he gave it a once over before turning around and strapping in. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the highway.

She absently stared at the quickly passing lights that illuminated the stretch of highway, until he spoke again. "So, you new in town?"

She gave a small smile, "Something like that, though I've been here once before when I was younger."

_They needed a conviction. Pro-bono work. A series of girls murdered and staged, they knew who had done it, they just couldn't prove it. How could they? He was a city councilman and had half the police force in his back pocket. So they had called her grandmother and her grandmother had, in turn, brought her along, needed her to come along. She was only eleven when she saw her first morgue._

_It hadn't been her last._

She had seen the darkness of man long before anyone her age should have but yet she still had managed to let **that** happen.

"So whatcha doing here now?"

She went to play with a piece of hair before realizing that she didn't have hair long enough to play with anymore, "Moving, though hopefully, it's short term."

She watched as they entered the city proper, the building lights illuminated the sidewalks better than the streetlights ever could. She heard a siren go off somewhere in the distance and resisted the urge to sigh. Why did cities have to be so loud? She had been gone for five hours and missed her town already.

As they drove through the city, she began to hear a whimpering from inside her bag. She looked up to see if the driver had noticed but he was thankfully paying attention to the road.

"Let me out." She heard before placing a hand on her bag to try and smother the sound.

She looked down, "Not yet." She muttered under her breath.

The driver looked back at her through the rearview mirror, "Didja say something?"

"Ummm. Yeah, sorry but I was wondering how much longer?" She felt her bag begin to rattle beneath her hand.

"We're almost there. Just a couple more miles."

She looked down at her winter boots, and she could see her bag begin to move properly. She could walk a couple of miles if she had to. "Okay. I uh think I'll get out here. Stretch my legs and whatnot." He gave her a funny look before managing to pull over. He told her her fees and she paid, tipping generously, before getting out and grabbing her stuff from the trunk. "Thanks for the ride."

He rolled down the window to look at her, "Stay safe out there, kid, the streets are a dangerous place."

She gave him her best smile, "Thanks for the warning, but I'll be fine." He gave a hesitant nod before driving off. She waited until the taxi was well out of sight before digging into her bag and pulling out her bracelet. The bones rattled as she strapped them to her wrist. "Better?" She looked down at the bracelet and watched as a figure floated out of it.

"Much!" The ghostly girl, no older than her, twirled. "I was starting to suffocate from all those gross bags you carry."

She raised an eyebrow, "Those gross bags, as you so rudely called them, keep unwanted attention off of us, remember?" The girl opened her mouth to speak but she kept talking. "Furthermore, you can't suffocate when you're already dead. And finally, are you trying to get us caught?"

"But it had been hours! Long boring hours in that bag with nothing to do but rattle a couple of bones and move your stuff around." The girl whined.

She quickly opened her purse and noticed several things were out of place. She ground her teeth before letting out a sigh, "The main point, Giselle, is that I'm in enough trouble as it is. I've basically been exiled!"

Giselle gave her a smile, "That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" She watched as Giselle looked around. "There's a cemetery just around the corner, let's go check if anyone's awake."

Before she could disagree, Giselle had already begun to float away. "Oh, yes," she muttered, "let's go to that one place I was expressly told not too." But she followed anyways.

Giselle passed through the fence and by the time she got there the gate was already open. She almost slipped when a face appeared in front of her but she just glared at Giselle's toothy grin. "This whole being a ghost thing isn't half bad."

She just let out a sigh. Because the fact of the matter was that there was no good reason why Giselle was a ghost. But she was and there was nothing she could have done about it or that's what her therapist kept saying anyway. So instead she just walked to the rows of graves in front of her. It was her last night of true freedom, after all, so she might as well enjoy it.

The graves were quiet. Normally she'd have run into at least three ghosts by now. But this was Maxville and Maxville was anything but normal.

"Do you think I'll be able to actually see and talk to ghosts now?" Giselle asked, breaking her thoughts.

"You should be able to, you are one." She felt a small tingle on her neck and started moving towards it. The more they walked the more the tingle tingled. It took all of her might not to scratch it.

She knew they had walked far enough when she heard a soft voice, "Oh, hello there."

She looked up and saw a child sitting on a tombstone. She gave an awkward smile, of course, it had to be a child. "Hi."

She felt a hand phase through her shoulder. "Holy shit. I can see them!" Giselle continued to try to pat her shoulder.

The kid laughed, "I can see you too. Hi." The kid adjusted their hospital gown. He then looked at her, "But you're not dead, why can you see me?" They gasped, "Are you a superhero?! Like Mr Incredible?!"

She flinched back, before smiling again. "Nah, I'm just a girl who enjoys darkened walks in the cemetery."

The kid laughed, "You're weird. I like you. I'm Tommy!"

Giselle looked down at him and grinned, "I'm Giselle and this is-"

She cut her friend off, "I'm Dani."

They spoke with Tommy for a while. Dani never bothered to check the time while speaking with ghosts because they always had something interesting to say and they needed time to say it. Especially children. They loved listening as much as talking. Stories of how the world changed were always interesting. For Tommy, it was whether or not Mr Incredible was still awesome. That was a question Dani didn't know, and if Giselle knew it she didn't speak up. Tommy said he had lived just long enough to see superheroes made legal again and that he was glad because the world needed superheroes. That was something that Dani didn't agree with but she didn't tell him that. So she listened to the tale of how Mr Incredible had stopped a giant robot from destroying the hospital he was living in.

Giselle was the first person to notice that it had gotten late. "Are you cold?" She looked at Dani.

She shrugged, "If I am, I haven't noticed it yet."

"You're lips are turning blue." Giselle frowned. "We should go before you become one of us."

Dani's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Tommy, "But what about you? You should have moved on by now."

The boy gave a small smile, "It's alright, I'm waiting for my sister. I get to see her every Sunday after church, so I thought it'd be nice to let her see me once in return."

Dani's mouth opened and shut, "Oh...okay. Well then, Tommy, it was a pleasure meeting you."

His bright grin returned, "Yes! Please come again. I'm always here if you want to talk! I can teach you more about Mr Incredible!"

"That sounds great!" Giselle grinned. "We'll definitely come back!"

They said their goodbyes and began to leave, once they were out of earshot Dani spoke, "You shouldn't make promises we can't keep."

"But I want to hear more about Mrs Incredible! It's not like we can't come back, we just can't tell anyone. Well, most people can't hear me anyway so I guess you can't tell anyone." Giselle paused, floating there absently. "We should get you out of the cold."

Dani shivered a little, "Yeah. I guess."

They left the graveyard behind and began the supposedly two-mile trek to her new home. But the time they had taken had allowed the cold night air set in, causing Dani to shiver a little more aggressively. They walked for what seemed to be only an hour, but Dani knew better, her sense of timing is always off.

She glanced at her watch and resisted the urge to sigh. They had been outside for almost three hours. "Giselle, can you go on ahead? See what's around here? Like, a street sign or someplace we can ask for directions, or maybe even a restaurant."

Giselle saluted and flew off. Dani followed behind slowly. Her toes were starting to tingle and she was just glad that there wasn't much snow on the ground. If there was one good thing about this God-forsaken place it was that the ocean town didn't get too cold. Or maybe it did, and she just couldn't tell anymore.

When Giselle came back she explained that while she hadn't seen their new home, she had seen a restaurant around a corner or two and with a sigh, she began walking again.

* * *

The restaurant that Giselle had found was a Chinese restaurant called 'The Paper Lantern'. The inside was red and gold and warm. Nice and warm. And thankfully not too busy. Dani had been quickly led to a table in the corner of the restaurant, she stared at the empty chair across the table from her before shaking her head and stuffing her bags into the corner behind her, as out of the way as possible.

"Would it make you feel better if I sat down?" Giselle asked.

"A bit," Dani whispered, her lips barely moving. She removed her jacket, also shoving it in the corner atop her bags, before shoving her bone bracelet under the black wool sweater she wore. It rattled in protest, causing her to squeeze it until it stopped. She tried not to think about the bruise she'd have in the morning because of it.

Giselle waited until Dani ordered before speaking again. "It's been a while since we did this. Gone out, I mean."

Dani sipped her tea, "House arrest will do that." The fact of the matter was that she didn't care if they went out or not. Just that they were together, just that she got to keep the one semblance of normalcy that the _incident_ hadn't stolen from her. She was glad that she got to keep her best friend despite everything. Though that was exactly what it was. Keeping.

Her food arrived and she picked up her chopsticks. She went to grab a piece of broccoli but as she managed to pick it up her hand began to violently shake causing the broccoli to go flying. She dropped her chopsticks on the table and clutched her hand to her chest. Desperately trying to get the tremors to stop.

"You okay?" She instinctively looked at Giselle, only to see her gaping at the space beside the table. Dani looked up and cursed her brain for not registering the masculine voice speaking to her.

She blinked a couple of times before remembering that she was asked a question. "Ummm. Yeah." She gave a choked laugh, "Guess I need more Physio then I thought." She took in his apron quickly, "I hate to ask this but can I get a fork, please?"

"Yeah, sure."

Once he was gone Dani glanced at Giselle, who was beginning to float after him. Dani gave a sigh, and gave a tug on the invisible thread binding Giselle to her, pulling the ghost back.

"Wait! Let me go! I just want his name! Please!" Giselle squirmed against the tether. Once she realized Dani wasn't letting go she huffed and sat back down. "What's the point in being a ghost if I can't at least find out a hot guy's name?"

"You're not supposed to be the type of ghost who sneaks into the locker room hoping to catch a peak. Besides it's not like you'll ever see him again so what's the point?"

"See who again?"

Back home whenever Dani had been caught talking to herself, people assumed she was talking to a ghost. Because that was her family's reputation and some of the time she actually was. But she wasn't at home, she was in Maxville. A place where her powers were not to be spoken of.

So when she caught the busboy staring at her with a grin that clearly stated he knew exactly who she was talking about, she flushed with mortification. And as she stammered through an explanation as Giselle started snickering, she had to fight the urge to glare at her, exceptionally see-through, best friend. She let out a sigh and looked up with a smile, "Just an old friend and what could have been."

He grinned, "Good cover." He handed her the fork. "Let me know if you need anything else."

She waited until he was far enough away from her before she turned to Giselle and her food."Well, good news, you're still able to get me into trouble even in death." Dani grumbled as she stabbed a piece of broccoli with her newly acquired fork.

As she finished her food, she slid the address to their new home towards Giselle. "Can you do both of us a favour and find this place so we have a place to sleep tonight?"

Giselle crossed her arms, "Why do I have to go on my own?!"

"Because I have to eat and you don't?" She drank some more tea, "Besides, you're the reason why we got out of the taxi in the first place."

Giselle rolled her eyes, "Fine." She went to pick up the paper and paused. "Probably shouldn't pick that up in a crowded restaurant, huh?

"I mean you can, but probably not." She watched Giselle furiously try to remember the address before flying off.

Dani stared at the address from across the table, trying to remember if she saw any street signs on the way here. But she just sighed and drained the rest of her cup. At

this point, all she wanted was to get to her GameCube and replay Resident Evil 4 or the 2002 remake again. Anything to get back to a sense of normalcy.

"Can I get you anything else?" She looked up to see the busboy again.

She thought of a witty response but knew better, the poor boy was just trying to do his job. No doubt stuck with her cause she freaked out the other staff. She looked down at her mostly empty plate then back at him. "Uhhh. Yeah. Do you do take out?"

"Yeah, what can I get you?"

"Umm a second…no, wait, Billy's probably hungry too. So can I get two more orders of this to go, please."

"Sure, no problem."

She said her thanks and waited until he was gone before completely finishing off her food. She grabbed the piece of paper with the address on it and began looking at it. Hoping Giselle would be back before her food was done.

Giselle did not, in fact, get back before her food was done. As the busboy handed her her food he caught sight of the paper and asked about it and she explained her situation.

"Lemme see, I know the area well enough so I might be able to help." He reached for the paper and she gave it to him. Anything to avoid having to borrow some stranger's phone to tell her brother to come and get her. "It's just around the corner."

"Huh?" Dani stared at him with a blank face.

"Yeah. Once you leave go right, head to the end of the road go right again then head down the sidewalk until you find the house."

"I think I'm in love." Dani heard Giselle swoon from behind her.

Dani was still looking at him with wide eyes. "You're a wonderful person." She found herself saying. "You've saved me from having from making an embarrassing phone call. So thank you."

He stared at her, opened his mouth, snapped it shut before saying, "You're welcome."

She looked at her bill, "So do I go pay at the counter?"

"Uhhh. Yeah. Follow me."

* * *

Dani and Giselle stared at the reddish-brown door then at the paper. "This seems like the place." Giselle looked at the page then back at the number beside the door.

"Seems like."

"So what are we going to do? Should we knock?"

"Nah." She looked around and saw no one coming down the street, "Hold the food." She handed Giselle the plastic bag, which to someone else would have looked like a bag of food floating.

Dani unlocked the door, opened it, ripped her boot off and whipped it at the head sitting on the couch. It struck with a resounding thud, knocking the headset off. "HEY DUMBASS YOU FORGET SOMETHING?!"

The person stood and looked at her, "Did I? Oh hey, you brought food?"

Dani sputtered then laughed, "Food is for people who do their damn job! Billy!" Once she called out, she heard the groan of response and saw a purplish-black void open up on the carpet.

The smell of death spilt from it and a rotting hand grabbed carpet, pulling himself out. Followed by a second, then a head with an eyeball falling out and a jaw that was mostly bone barely connecting to the skull. Patches of skin were peeling off, more and more as he revealed himself. His stomach was bloated and his flesh raw and rotting. Once he was out he stood, one of his legs was nothing but bone. And with him out, the void closed.

Dani smiled fondly at the zombie, "Oh, Billy. Don't worry I'll fix you now." Billy looked at her fondly and gave a groan of thanks.

"You've got to be shitting me. The zombie gets food and I don't." Her brother snapped.

"YES, CHRISTIAN, THE ZOMBIE GETS FOOD AND YOU DON'T BECAUSE THE ZOMBIE CAN AT LEAST DO WHAT HE'S TOLD." Dani looked around, "Where's the phone, I need to call mom."

"Don't have one." Christian sat back down.

"You've been here a month and didn't set up a phone line?"

"You have all the money."

"You were supposed to have gotten a job by the time I got here. Everything was supposed to have been set up by the time I got here." She sighed and put on a smile, "Kay, fine. Have fun starving. If you can't keep up your part, you don't get to eat."

"MY PART?!" He roared, ran towards her and grabbed her jacket collar. "WHAT PART OF THIS IS MY PART?! I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE! THE ONLY REASON WHY I'M HERE IS BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T FUCKING HELP YOURSELF! ALL OF THIS IS YOUR DAMN FAULT!"

Dani blinked calmly and stared him down. "Get your hands off of me before the zombie makes you. And you know, he doesn't like holding back."

He let her go, breathing heavily. And Dani heard it before he could see it. The food hit the ground with an almost upsetting thud. She wondered what he saw because what she saw was her best friend, angry beyond belief. The way her parents had described it was a dark purple shadow. Also, angry beyond belief.

He stepped back as Giselle bared down on him, something that was common when she was alive too. "OUR FAULT?! YOU LEFT US REMEMBER?! YOU FUCKED OFF AND LEFT US!"

"Call her off, Danielle, now." Christian voice was a warning.

Giselle was still yelling and if she wanted to, Dani could make her visible. But it cost her a lot of energy that she wasn't willing to waste on her brother. "Giselle, that's enough. It's not like he can hear you anyways."

Giselle glared at the man and screamed. It was the kind of scream that put banshee's to shame, and judging by how Christian was covering his ears, he definitely heard that. When she was done she flew back to Dani and picked up the food bag. "Let's go."

"Yeah, come on Billy, I'll fix you up in my room." She found her room, the name tag made it obvious. She opened the door and her eyes caught sight of the roughly unpacked stuff, noticing that her spices were left on her desk messily. She took a step closer, grabbed two containers off the counter and ran out.

"YOU PUT BILLING'S ROOT AND WOLF'S BANE NEXT TO EACH OTHER?! DO YOU WANT POLTERGEISTS? BECAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU GET POLTERGEISTS!"

* * *

So...Uhhh...I guess I'm back? Writing Sky High Fanfiction? I guess. Well, there it was. Hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Chapter Two

Sky High belongs to its legal owners

Chapter two:

There had been an incident.

Her head still throbbed where the pipe had cracked her skull.

Her side still ached where the knife ripped her stomach when she had tried to fight back.

There had been an incident.

It was finally Monday. She would finally have access to a phone today. And she could go shopping for food after school without seeing Christian's dumb face.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her short auburn hair was in the process of growing back after it was shaved off at the hospital. _After_. Her storm grey eyes looked tired but ready for her return to school even if it wasn't her old one. And she felt ready for whatever Sky High could throw at her.

That was until she saw what her black sweater did to her complexion. She looked like a zombie herself. She ripped the shirt off, "I'm a summer, darn it!" She opened her closet and pulled out a long-sleeved pink shirt. She pulled it on and checked herself out in the mirror. "Dang, I'm cute."

"You're also going to miss the bus." Giselle laughed.

"Nah." Dani strapped on her bone bracelet before grabbing her coat and bag off the back of her desk chair. She ran out of the room and towards the front door. She heard a groan as she made it and she stopped to look at the zombie getting ready to vacuum the carpet. "I'm going to buy lunch today. We don't have much food for me to take." He groaned again this time a little more worriedly. "It's going to be okay. I'll catch the bus and be at school all day."

This time when he groaned, she smiled and grabbed his hand. It was no longer rotting and more leathery, more akin to mummification than zombification. She guided him to the window. She pointed to the corner visible. "You see that corner?" He groaned in agreement. "I'll be waiting for the bus right there. You can keep an eye on me from this window, or the one in our room."

He groaned again, and she pulled away from the window and turned him towards her. She showed him her bracelet, "It'll be okay, Mom said that I'm allowed to keep it with me at school. That if I ever need you I am to call for you right away." She took both of his hands into hers and brought them up until she was able to rest her forehead on them. "It'll be okay. I won't let anything like that happen again."

He let out a soft groan and she smiled at him again, "I have to go or I'm gonna be late. If I need you, I'll call. I promise." He gave one final groan and turned towards the window waiting for her to get outside.

She headed out and down the front steps, bracing herself against the cold winter air. She walked to the corner, looked back, and saw Billy waiting in the window. She waved and Giselle gave a small laugh, "Maybe Billy should walk us to the bus stop like when we were kids."

"He can't, I forgot his Uncle Billy costume while packing." Dani's eyes went wide. "I forgot to tell him when I'd be back. I'm a horrible child."

"Dani! Now he's gonna sit at the window all day wondering where you are."

Dani saw the bus turn the corner, she looked at Giselle. "Can you behave yourself?"

Giselle grinned, "Yes, Sir!" She flew into the bracelet and rattled it a little as she got comfortable.

The bus stopped, the door opened, she stepped into the nice warm bus, and she could already feel the strange looks. The bus driver looked at her, "You the new kid?"

"If this is the bus I think it is, then yeah."

His hand went out and they shook, "I'm Ron Wilson."

"Dani pleased to meet you."

She took the only empty spot left, ignoring the strange looks that everyone was giving her, clearly they didn't get transfers often. She wanted to look out a window but kept her eyes straight ahead instead. She watched the bus drive onto a road closed for construction. That caught her eye and she began looking around, but the other students seemed unfazed by the current situation. And then the bus dropped.

Dani let out a scream while the other students cheered. She was not ready for whatever Sky High could throw at her.

She was not ready.

SHE HAD NOT BEEN READY.

* * *

Once they landed and disembarked, Dani collapsed onto the ground, giving a hollow laugh. "The name makes sense now."

"Excuse me, are you Danielle?"

Dani looked up and saw a red-haired girl wearing a green jacket. "Uhhhh. Yeah. But everyone calls me Dani."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Layla." Layla reached her hand out to help Dani up. "Principle Powers asked me to take you to her once you got here."

Dani brushed herself off, as she tried to remember which one of the Council members had been Principal Powers. It had to have been the lady dressed in white, who had offered her a spot at Sky High in the first place. "Oh okay." Well, she'd find out soon enough.

As the girl, Layla, led her to the office she talked a lot. Stuff like never getting transfer students, how not to fall off the ledge, class dynamics and then finally, "What's your power?"

Dani stopped as her mouth opened and shut, the process didn't stop. She pressed her lips together, just to get the flapping to stop. Once Layla realized that Dani had stopped, she came back. "Dani? Sorry, should I not have asked? We're all pretty open about it, so I just assumed."

"Just tell her. They'll find out anyway when you start talking to me and all they see is you talking to air." Giselle told her from where she rested in the bracelet.

Dani let out a sigh. "I...I'm a necromancer."

Layla's eyes went wide for a second before she smiled, "Oh, so you'll be in the hero class with Will and Warren." She paused and started walking, "Well, not with Warren, cause he's older than us, but he's also in the hero class. I'm with Hero Support, so we won't have classes together but if you need anything, come find me in between classes or at lunch." She stopped at a door, "We're here! I have to get to class, so I'll see you later."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you later." Dani watched her leave before entering the office. The secretary looked up at her approach. "Hi, I'm Danielle Nocta, I'm here to see Principal Powers."

The secretary adjusted her glasses, "Take a seat, she'll be with you soon."

Dani took a seat and watched as the secretary contacted the Principal. The back door of the office opened and Dani stood as a woman in a pure white suit walked out. "Danielle, it's good to finally meet you face to face. I'm Principal Powers." They shook hands. "Come into my office, and we'll get started."

Dani followed her into the office and immediately took stock of the two men in suits standing by the desk. "I'm sure you had wanted to put this off as long as possible, but as part of our agreement with the Council, we need to get your power dampener on as soon as possible. Thankfully we were able to get it done for today." Principal Powers had her take a seat and the suits began their approach. Principal Powers waved them off. "Before they start prodding at you, do you want to say anything?"

"No Ma'am. I know the terms of being allowed to attend and since it was either this or the death penalty, I suppose this isn't such a bad option."

Principal Powers smiled, "Well, it's good to see you've changed your mind a little."

_She stood there before the Council of Heroes as they held court for the umpteenth time trying to figure out what to do with her. Her hands bound and the broken power dampener in her neck was still sending shocks to her brain. Either they hadn't realized that the dumb thing was broken, or they just weren't bothering to remove it, but either way, she knew it'd be so easy to end this farce. So easy._

_Her head raised, as her mother pleaded on her behalf, and she snapped, "Enough! If you're going to treat me like an animal then hurry up and put me down already!"_

She could still hear her mother's near sob as she called her name. "Well, when you've been locked in a cell for something like two months you tend to lose your patience a little." She looked at the Suits. "So where's it going this time?"

"Your leg."

Dani turned and lifted her leg, letting them fuss with the device as much as they wanted. Once they were done, she examined it. "Cute." It wasn't, it was no different than an ankle monitor for a common criminal, she would know after all.

"So...how long is going to take for you to remove this one?" Giselle cooed into her ear. She tapped her calf twice before putting her leg down and turning back towards Principal Powers. "Two days? It'll make a perfect accessory for your nightstand."

Principal Powers' voice took her attention from the dampener and back to the woman in front of her, "So how does it feel?"

"No different than the ankle monitor. So it's not anything new."

"Not too tight?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright then, let's get you ready for class." Principal Powers led them to the door, "Gentlemen?"

The suits left and stood in the office, and Dani could feel one of them glaring at her. "Listen here kid, we'll know if you tamper with that device so you better behave yourself."

Dani turned to the one who spoke and gave him her best smile, "I'm sure you will."

"You're gonna take it off even sooner, aren't you?" Giselle howled with laughter.

"Sure am." Dani smiled at where Giselle was floating, and one of the suits had to hold back the other.

Principal Powers looked at her, "You really do have a ghost with you?"

Dani turned towards her, "Yes ma'am."

Principal Powers seemed to be thinking about something for a moment, "Alright. You'll have to write certain exams in the detention room."

Dani nodded, "Seems fair. Academic integrity and all that. We got separated for exams often before too, teachers seemed to think we'd cheat when she was alive too."

"That's a good attitude. Come on, I'll give you a tour."

* * *

Principal Powers showed her where her classes, the gymnasium, the library, and the cafeteria were. She also explained that normally a student would have to go through Power Placement before being assigned to a class, but since she was aware of what her powers were that they were skipping Dani's assessment. She also explained that heroes in training were split into subsections, that she was to be placed in the Summoner class and that yes raising the dead counted as summoning. And, finally, if she had any problems, that she was to come to see her right away.

By the time the tour ended, it was almost lunch. So Principal Powers dropped Dani off at her class so that she could meet at least one of her teachers before the bell rang. She knocked on the door to the Mad Science lab and the bald professor with the bulbous head looked over. "Mr Medulla, I've brought our new student, try not to overwhelm her on her first day."

"Well, since there's only half an hour left of class, I don't see how that's possible." Mr Medulla waved her in, "Come in. Mr Stronghold, raise your hand please, you finally have a partner."

Dani walked in and saw a boy with shaggy brown hair in a red, white and blue jacket with a raised hand at the back of the classroom. She walked towards the back and sat down next to him, "Hi, I'm Dani." She reached out her hand and he shook her hand with a little more force than necessary.

"Oof, sorry about that. I'm still not quite used to the super strength yet. I'm Will."

"So what are we working on?"

"Bomb diffusion. It's not live but I have definitely killed our class at least three times. I'm not great at Mad Science."

"Well lucky for you, Mr Stronghold, science happens to be my best subject." He moved the bomb over to her, carefully so as to not set it off again. She looked it over and clock on the front, "Why's the timer sitting at a minute?"

"If you flip the switch it'll start and if you don't disarm it in time it red light goes off which means the bomb went off."

"I see." Dani flipped the switch and began disassembling the bomb. She poked, prodded, and examined it then finally pulled out the blue wire, then the red, and finally the white one. The timer stopped and the green light lit up.

Will looked at her with wide eyes, "How'd you do that?"

Dani began walking Will through the disarming process. By the time the bell rang, she had managed to get Will to disarm the bomb three times in a row without setting the bomb off. And when the bell went off, Will was staring at her.

"What?"

"Are you a technopath?"

Dani blinked a couple of times, "A what now?"

"Miss. Nocta, come see me for your classwork." Mr Medulla's voice made her gather her stuff quickly.

"Yes, Mr Medulla. Well, I'll see you later Mr Stronghold." She gave him a smile before heading to the front of the room.

She discussed her "catch up" plan with Medulla for about five minutes before she was dismissed. She didn't have much actual work to catch up on since she had been doing it at home. But once she walked out of the room she saw the red-haired girl again. Layla, she reminded herself.

"Hey. I hope this isn't weird, but I wanted to see if you wanted to eat lunch together."

Dani smiled, "Yeah, sure. I, uh, just need to put this stuff in my locker first."

Layla led Dani to her locker, the pale green/blue of it was nostalgic, she hadn't seen one since more than half a year ago. She rotated the lock until it unlocked. She stuffed her junk into the locker unceremoniously, grabbing only her wallet and sweater from her bag. She shrugged the pale pink sweater on and zipped it up all the way.

"Cold?" Giselle asked.

"Cafeterias tend to run cold, you know that."

Layla stared at her, "Huh?"

Dani looked at her with wide eyes, "Uhhhh. I swear there is a ghost here, and I am not talking to myself."

"You can see ghosts?"

Dani slowly nodded, "Most necromancers can."

"I didn't know that."

"Makes sense, there's not a lot of crossover between our people." She closed her locker. "So which way to the cafeteria?"

"Oh, right. Let's go eat."

The cafeteria was packed, people littered the tables, but the line to order was almost gone. Layla was nice enough to stand in line with her, despite having brought a lunch. Dani loaded her tray, some sandwiches, a couple of fruit cups, two bottles of juice and the last vanilla pudding. She got a strange look from the person working the cashier.

"That's a lot of food," Layla said as they walked to a table.

"I'm trying to get back to my core weight and I still have something like twenty pounds to add. I'll pack a lunch for tomorrow, I just don't have anything at home right now."

"Hey, Layla! Over here!" They heard a girl call with a raised hand. The table she and two other people were sitting at was surprisingly empty.

Layla led Dani to the table, and before she could even see who else was there she heard Giselle squeal. "HOT BUSBOY ALERT! He's even better looking with his hair down."

Dani stared at her blankly, "And enough of that." She grabbed the invisible thread binding Giselle to her and pulled on it hard, shoving her back into the bracelet.

"Hey! Lemme out! Dani!" Giselle cried. "You wouldn't do this if I was still alive."

"Well, you used to have decorum when you were alive."

"Everyone meet Dani. Dani, meet everyone." Layla took a seat in between the man in the leather jacket and the girl with purple streaks, while the boy in the orange jacket pulled out a chair next to him for Dani and she thanked him.

"Small world." She smiled at the man across from her, which caused him to look up from his book.

"You two know each other?" Layla asked as she unpacked her lunch.

"Kind of, she threw a piece of broccoli at me."

Dani paused then nodded, "Not inaccurate, sorry bout that by the way."

"It's fine, it happens more often than you think. Didja make it there alright?"

"Yeah, thanks for your help. But I'm being rude, I'm Dani."

"Warren."

The girl sitting next to Layla waved, "Magenta."

The boy next to Dani offered her his hand and they shook, "I'm Ethan." He smiled widely.

"It's nice to meet you." They started to dig into their meals.

"By the way, Warren, where's Eve?" Layla asked as she bit into a baby carrot.

When he grumbled something the entire group 'Ahh'ed prompting Dani to ask, "Who's Eve?" The question slipped out before she could stop herself.

"Warren's on and off again girlfriend." Magenta grinned as he glared at her.

"Ahh."

"Hey, guys." A familiar voice made them lookup. "Oh, hey Dani." She waved.

Layla looked back at him as he stole a couple of carrots from her. "How's Zach? Still in a bad mood?"

"Yeah. I think he's been glowing all lunch and just hasn't bothered to turn it off." He munched on a carrot. "I should get back. Ethan, you coming?"

"You're not partnered with him in Mad Science, I'm good."

"All right, see you all later."

Dani unwrapped a sandwich, curious but figured it wasn't her place to ask about it. They watched Will leave before getting back to their lunches.

After a while, Ethan spoke, "Oh yeah! Did you all see those suits enter the Principal's office this morning?"

Warren visibly stiffened as Dani finished drinking her first juice bottle. "Oh, they were here because of me." They all stared at her. "What? They were here to give me my new accessory." She turned then lifted her leg so they could see the power dampener.

"That's a…?" Magenta asked.

"Power dampener." Warren glared at the device. "Why?"

Dani lowered her leg and turned back to her lunch and drank some more of her juice. "Because somethings happened and it made a bunch of people nervous."

"But don't they normally put one in your neck?" Ethan stared at her.

She turned and showed them the back of her neck, lifting up the sparse hair that covered the jagged scar that ran vertically down her neck. "They did and I short-circuited it and they took exception to that." They stared at her, and she shrugged. "Things happened." She didn't continue and just drank her juice.

As they finished their lunches, Dani stuffed two of her four sandwiches into her bag for later. Layla looked at her, "What class do you have now?"

"Baby's first summoning class. Sounds easy enough. Then...something, something gym then villain something." She shrugged.

* * *

Baby's first summoning class was just that. A bunch of teenagers trying to consistently summon their better halves. She watched as a person summoned their phoenix and then it poofed back out of existence almost instantly. According to the person next to her, a dragon Summoner, they had only been practising for the past month and the first semester had been technical.

"Miss. Noctis are we already having issues?" Her teacher asked.

"Uhhh. No?" She was flipping through the textbook, haphazardly. How was something that was supposed to come naturally, be taught in such an unnatural manner?

"Then you should be practising."

She resisted rolling her eyes, "I don't need to and you'd know that if you had bothered to read the file they gave you."

"I did read the file and all I saw was someone with absolutely no control over their power."

Dani's eye twitched, and she gripped the table. Took a deep breath, and released. "Fine. Stand aside kids let me show you how a professional does it." She waited until the centre of the room was clear before releasing another breath. The temperature dropped, if she was going to do it, she might as well do it properly. "I call upon the damned to come to my aid. Those who have been bound to me. Those under my control. I pull you from death and call upon you now. Freddie! Phillip! I summon you, come to my aid!"

The purplish-black void split open the floor, and the smell of death spilt from it once again. The smell made phoenix girl gag and sputter, Dani resisted smiling. The groans of the undead filled the room and when a hand shot out someone screamed. They climbed out of the hole. Their flesh rotting...and Phillip was missing his jaw, and Freddie couldn't stand because his left leg was in his hand. They both groaned appreciatively as the void closed.

Dani stared at them, "What happened to you two?" They groaned and Freddie squirmed happily. "Okay, why were you fighting the other zombie kids?" She let out a sigh as they groaned more. "No, that is not a justifiable reason." Phillip made gurgling noises. "No, go find your jaw." He gurgled more and she pointed, "Go!" Then she grumbled, "I can't take you two anywhere." Phillip came back with his jaw in hand, "Thank you, help your brother so I can reattach his leg."

"Oh, so this is how a professional does it?" Phoenix Girl laughed.

Dani didn't bother looking up as she examined Freddie's leg. "Well, at least I can summon them." She looked at the teacher, "Are you satisfied?"

He clenched his jaw, "Yes."

"Kay, I'm going to play rebuild a zombie in the back." She stood and looked at the undead in front of her, "C'mon boys." They groaned and followed her to the back.

* * *

Dani got away with not paying attention to her next class. She sat next to some kid named Larry. Larry made himself seem like a big deal, but he was smaller than her without heels, so she wondered if it had anything to do with his powers. But gym class with Coach Boomer hadn't exactly given her the opportunity to ask.

They had done wind sprints. It was a stamina test. Running out of stamina on the job would get you killed. Once Dani was done she collapsed on the floor, questioning why she was so out of shape. While Giselle laughed, "I bet you wished you were signed up in gymnastics now."

Dani laughed breathlessly, "You're dead, that means you're more out of shape than I am."

"True my body's probably bug food now."

Dani tensed at that as Coach Boomer called her back to the floor. She spent the rest of the class trying to rid herself of the image of her best friend's body six feet under with a worm for an eye.

"I need to get back into our daily workouts," Dani whispered as she massaged out her calves.

"The doctor with the nice hair said not to do that, remember?" Giselle handed her the small stick of deodorant.

Dani scoffed, "The one time a doctor says to not exercise it had to be aimed at me."

Giselle frowned, "You're still healing."

"And you're dead. I know." She pinched her nose. "What class do we have next?"

"Something something Super Villain."

"Oh, so you stopped paying attention too, huh?" She rummaged through her bag and pulled out her class schedule.

She looked over her schedule trying to figure out the acronym on her page when she heard some girls whispering as they walked by.

"Did you hear her?"

"Talking to herself? What a freak!" They both started laughing.

Dani rolled her eyes, "There's a dude with acid spit in my Science class and I'm the freak?"

A chill ran up her spine and she felt ghostly fingers sweep under her chin, "Why don't you do something about them, Little God? You can. Easily. Making them scream, would be oh so delightful."

"Giselle, do you see anyone behind me?"

Giselle looked around, "No, why?"

"She's back." Dani sighed and leaned down towards the power dampener on her ankle. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Oh okay." Giselle scrunched her brow but flew back into the bracelet and Dani ignored the fingers running through her hair and turned the dampener up to full strength. She waited until the feeling of fingers stopped stroking her before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Bloody Necromancer. So ghosts can't see her either." She needed another Necromancer. One she wasn't related to. She let out a sigh and silently screamed into her hands.

* * *

Dani quietly opened the classroom door, hoping to be able to sneak in without being noticed. She made it to the first set of desks when her teacher spoke without missing a beat, "You're late Miss. Nocta."

She stood, "Uhhh. Would you believe I got lost?"

Mr Medulla looked at her, "This is the only time you will be able to use that excuse. Mr Peace, I'm sorry but it seems like you'll have to share your seat."

Dani looked at where the dismissive grunt came from and was surprised to see a familiar face. He gave a small wave when their eyes met and she rushed to the table. She sat down quickly and waited for Mr Medulla to start teaching again.

"Aren't you a senior? Why are you here?" Dani side-eyed him as she pulled out her notebook.

Warren looked at her, "I'm a junior, and the better question is why are you here? Juniors and seniors only."

"To be fair, I'm still not sure what class this is." She looked around and noticed that the only familiar face was Warren.

"The Life and Career Path of a Super Villain," Warren told her.

Dani pulled out a notebook and a pen from her backpack, "Huh. Yeah, that makes sense." Warren began to side-eye her but if she noticed she made no indication as she began taking notes.

* * *

Dani stood on the grass out of the way of all kids trying to get home. "Done. Day one complete." She said with her hands on her hips, chest stuck out.

"Feeling good?"

Dani looked at Giselle floating beside her, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Giselle grinned, "Good. You ready for the bus ride home?"

Dani laughed hollowly, "Hahaha. No."

She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she stumbled forward at the force of it. "Oh, sorry. You okay?"

She looked back to see Will run a hand through his hair, behind him was a tall but lanky dude. "Yeah, I'm fine, just lost my balance." She made eye contact with the boy standing next to him, "Hi. I'm Dani."

He grumbled out something, and Will gave a small choked laugh, "This is Zach." He then leaned in to whisper, "He's not normally like this, he's having a bad month."

Zach mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like it was a bad year. Dani looked at him, "I get that."

"So, you catching Ron's bus?"

"Uhhh. Yeah. I think."

"Cool, you should come and sit with us."

"Oh good. So I can scream next to someone I know rather than some stranger."

"What?"

"I don't like roller coasters." Will laughed as they walked to the busses.

* * *

*CASUALLY FORGETS TO ADD AUTHORS NOTE WHILE PROCRASTINATING ON STUDYING*

Hoped y'all enjoyed it.

Disney: Give us more Sky High, you have no excuses.


End file.
